Golfers generally know how far a golf ball will be in flight after being struck by a golf club and, consequently, will select a particular club according to how far it is desired for the ball to travel. The launch conditions of the ball generated by the impact (i.e., ball speed, launch angle, and backspin) determine how far the ball will travel. However, a secondary consideration in controlling the ball's travel distance involves what happens after the ball strikes the ground. Once the ball strikes the ground, its movement is primarily affected by the amount of backspin imparted on the ball by the golf club. A ball having a greater amount of backspin after being struck will have less forward roll after it lands on the ground. Less forward roll is advantageous to a golfer because it provides precision landing and placement of the golf ball on a golf green. Lack of sufficient backspin will create too much forward roll, which can cause a golf ball to unmanageably roll either off of the green or in a direction away from a golf hole. Imparting spin on the golf ball is a way to control the golf shot and to provide greater accuracy. This is particularly true if the golf club imparts consistent spin in multiple strikes of the golf ball.
To gain backspin, grooves, or score lines, are placed in and extended across the face of a golf club. The grooves help to grip the ball when it is hit by the club. Because the golf club has a lofted angle, the ball is driven forward and upward, generating backspin. The greater the loft, the greater the backspin, and the more the grooves grip the ball, the even greater the amount of backspin. Since a high amount of backspin is most desirable when using high lofted clubs, the focus of groove geometry has centered primarily on irons, and, in particular, primarily on 7 irons through wedges. Wedges are generally designed with a variety of loft angles, ranging from about 48 degrees to 64 degrees, to vary the control of distance and trajectory.
A variety of groove configurations have been devised to achieve additional backspin. These configurations include squared grooves, V-shaped grooves, U-shaped grooves, and variations of these shapes, including grooves with parabolic sides as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,929 to Long. These shapes are governed by the U.S. Golf Association (“USGA”) rules of golf as to their depth, width, spacing, and positioning. Specifically, a groove may not be deeper than 0.508 mm or wider than 0.9 mm. Adjacent grooves may not be closer than three times the width of the groove (the “3-times-width rule”) and must be at least 1.905 mm apart. Finally, the width and cross-section of the grooves must be consistent across the face of the club head and along the length of the grooves.
The multiple shapes of the grooves illustrate how challenging it is to fulfill the requirements of effective grooves while staying true to the USGA rules. In general, more grip is achieved by increasing the surface contact between a ball and the groove and reducing the amount of debris (e.g., water, sand, and organic matter) between the ball and the club face. Therefore, a larger number of grooves provide better gripping, but the width must be reduced to accommodate the 3-times-width rule. Conversely, wider grooves perform better because more ball surface may enter the groove, but the 3-times-width rule allows ball contact with very few grooves. The draft angle or draft of a groove is commonly defined as the angle between an axis perpendicular to the face of the club head and a sidewall of the groove. Deeper grooves, e.g., U-or box-shaped grooves, allow for more release of debris trapped between the club face and the ball, but deep grooves have shallow drafts and allow little contact between the groove and the ball. Highly drafted grooves, e.g., V-shaped grooves, allow for more surface contact between the ball and the groove surface, but an evacuation area for debris is limited. The problem of V-shaped grooves is compounded because the USGA rules define groove width in terms of the intersection between the edges of the groove and a line on each side of the groove that is angled 30-degrees to the club face. The groove width is the distance between the two intersection points on each side of the groove. This severely limits the depth of a V-shaped groove. Also, V-shaped grooves typically have sharp top edges that may scuff the ball.
It should, therefore, be appreciated there is a need for a golf club head that imparts increased backspin to the ball in a range of playing situations and conditions. The present invention fulfills this need and others.